The Lost Girls || Bbangsaz

XXVII

     This was the moment Gwen had been waiting for. She'd set her sights on me the moment they showed up to the parking lot. Haerin and Hyein had already launched themselves at Frankie, who moved slowly but had enough muscle behind him to make up for it.

Gwen spun toward me, her feathered hair flying around her face, with one leg kicked outward. A spinning top of horrors. Her pointed grin flashed before me like a stop-motion movie. I couldn't show fear. It would only delight her.

I jumped out of the way, but she pivoted and caught my side with her powerful leg. A splitting pain burned through my side, and a crack split the air as one of my ribs broke in half. With another sweep of her leg, I went sprawling across the concrete. Asphalt seared my face, peeling away my skin like a cheese grater. I lifted my head from the ground. Rocks and dirt plinked against the concrete as my face healed and pushed out the debris.

Gwen stood over me with her foot on my throat, laughing. She had the kind of laugh built for faceless dolls and midnight funhouses.

She grabbed my hair and lifted me from the ground. "I've been wanting to spend a little time with you ever since the graveyard. Such a spunky fighter. You and I are going to have so much fun together."

"Define fun." I kicked my useless legs against her shins. She didn't even flinch; she just spun me around and snagged my hair into a tighter rope.

Gwen was too tall and quick, and she dodged my feet with ease.

She wrapped her hand around my elbow and pulled until it started to give. Her eyes turned a brilliant shade of emerald green as my bone popped out of my socket. The skin around my shoulder sounded like Velcro as it began to tear. A burning sensation coursed through my body as Gwen finally wrenched my arm clean off. I'd never felt worse pain, including the time Elton ditched me in the Tulsa Quick Stop, but I ground my teeth to dust to keep from crying out. I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of an outward reaction.

"Aren't you going to scream for me?" Gwen pouted, as if my vocal terror was her reward for a mutilation well done. "Maybe I'm going too easy on you?"

My arm had grown back, but it would only be a matter of seconds before she ripped it off again. Panic had me flailing about. My hair twisted and tangled in her fingers. Using my body for momentum, I dropped to my knees and caught her square in the gut with my shoulder. She bent forward, and with the wind knocked out of her, she loosened her grip on my hair. I yanked it free, losing half of it in the process. Sadly, it all grew back right away.

Frankie had Hyein and Haerin by the throats, one in each fist. Hyein's eyes bulged more than usual and her tongue had swollen to twice its normal size. He'd pop her head right off as if she were one of Gwen's kittens. I jammed my foot into his kneecap and he crashed to the ground like a towering pile of bricks.

Gwen caught up to us. She reached for me, but Hyein cut her off.

The two of them began taking swings at each other, Hyein landing just as many blows as Gwen, with as much force. Gwen's neck snapped, her head tilting limply to the side, and I cheered out loud, forgetting for a moment that we were fighting for our lives. I had no memories of Hyein from high school, but I would've bet everything I owned she hadn't been a brawler. Whatever skills she possessed now, she'd picked up from hunting and living in the streets. An odd sense of pride welled up in me as I watched her take on Gwen with matched skill.

I looked around for Elton and Dani, but they had disappeared.

So had Hanni, Across the other side of the field, toward the boxes that had been set up for our burial, I could just make out two figures struggling to hold a tiny one between them. My heart shattered. How could I have been so wrong about Hanni? Everything that we shared, everything that had felt so fragile and wonderful and real, how could any of that have been one sided?

I got so distracted by my feelings, I didn't hear Frankie approach from behind, and he had all the subtlety of a bear at a campsite. He knocked me off my feet from behind.

Both of Haerin's legs were missing, and he had one giant foot on her torso, pinning her to the ground. My nails bent backward and snapped off as I dug them into the concrete, scrambling to get away. He hauled me off the ground by my throat.